Nutrition Diagnosis

From The Critics

Reviewer: Gail L. Underbakke, MS, RD(University of Wisconsin-Madison Medical School)
Description: This book summarizes the American Dietetic Association's efforts to identify and define nutrition diagnoses/problems for the profession of dietetics. The book includes background information on the nutrition care process and the need for standardized nutrition language, but contains primarily detailed terms and definitions for use in nutrition diagnosis.
Purpose: While there is no preface or clear statement of objectives for this book, the authors' purpose seems to be provision of a comprehensive guide for nutrition professionals that includes essential tools to implement the four steps of the Nutrition Care Process. Within the Nutrition Care Process, this book focuses primarily on Nutrition Diagnosis. Changes in the health care and nutrition care environment have created a need for a reference book like this one. The extensive lists of diagnosis terms and definitions will provide a valuable guide for nutrition professionals as they transition to the nutrition care model.
Audience: This book is written appropriately for nutrition professionals in clinical practice. The contents of the book are primarily a collaborative effort of the Standardized Language Task Force of the American Dietetic Association, a collection of highly qualified nutrition professionals. In addition, the terminology presented in this book was reviewed by more than 50 expert reviewers, including physicians and nutrition professionals.
Features: The book begins with a previously published article on the Nutrition Care Process, an ADA statement on Standardized Nutrition Language, and an introductory statement on Nutrition Diagnoses. The next 130 pages are dedicated to charts categorizing and defining nutrition diagnostic terms. These charts also include detailed explanations of the etiology and signs and symptoms for each diagnostic term. The book concludes with the ADA procedures to make modifications to nutrition diagnostic terms and a previously published article describing the experience of two health care facilities as they implemented the nutrition care process. The strength of this book is the thorough development and presentation of nutrition diagnostic terminology. Each term is clearly defined as it would occur in a clinical context and the book provides detail that will be appreciated by nutrition professionals as they learn the skill of nutrition diagnosis. One weakness is the organization of the book. Including previously printed articles leads to duplication and slight differences in terminology, which may result in confusion for the reader. In addition, the formatting (lack of column headings) in some of the tables was incomplete, creating more confusion.
Assessment: I believe this book will be a valuable tool for nutrition professionals, providing extensive detail in the area of terminology for nutrition diagnosis. While understanding the flow of the book was initially difficult, the information to be gained is worth the effort. I am not aware of any other book that would provide a similar type and quality of information.